Exam 4: Theory and Practice to Change the World

According to dialectical materialism, a society's belief systems (ideology) and social relations (juridico-political structure) derive their basic character from that society's mode of production, or material base.

In "standing Hegel on his head," Marx rejected the dialectical notion of change through contradiction while advancing the idea that historical change occurs at the level of ideas and beliefs.

According to Marx, class consciousness among workers would occur as skill differences among them are reduced to the least common denominator (the ability to operate machinery), and as employers reduce wages in the pursuit of lowered production costs.

Because Marx was an active participant in the Russian revolution of 1917, it can be said that the collapse of the Soviet Union effectively repudiates and refutes Marx's ideas.

For Marx, exploitation under capitalism meant that some, but not all, employers treat their workers with abuse or injustice.

English industrialists and government leaders found it difficult to suppress the Luddite rebellion because rebels carried out uncoordinated, individual acts of sabotage against factory machinery.

Hegemony refers to a condition in which the dominant beliefs in a society represent that social order as "right" or natural, and therefore prevent people from challenging the political, economic, and social conditions of their lives.

According to Marx, the central contradiction in capitalism exists between consumption and production. Workers produce more than they are able to consume, leading to factory closures, rising unemployment, and deepening poverty.

According to Marx's evolutionary scheme, under communism conflicts between social classes would finally disappear, leading the state to "wither away" as unnecessary.

The New Deal reforms introduced by FDR were strongly supported by US business leaders as a means of preserving the basic outlines of a capitalist economy.